And so, after that first successful day, she began visiting Cardan every single day.
Today, when she brought him flowers again, Cardan noticed the thorn-pricked redness on her small hands. He told her not to bring these to him anymore.
Emilia froze at his words. Did he not like them anymore?
Cardan replied coldly, "That's right. Stop bringing them. They're worthless anyway."
Hearing something so hurtful, Emilia decided to stop picking flowers for good. And from that day on, she stopped visiting Cardan as often as before.
When the nanny mentioned that Cardan would be training with the knights that day, Emilia decided to go see him. She was not about to give up so easily.
The moment she reached the training grounds, Emilia called out loudly, "Hi there, Papa."
Seeing her there caught Cardan off guard. The knights, noticing her too, began whispering among themselves.
"Why is there a child here?"
"Look at that hair color."
Paying them no mind, Emilia ran up to scold him. "You're supposed to greet people back. Why don't you know that, Papa?"
The nanny hurried over and pulled Emilia into her arms, then greeted Cardan. Seeing that he did not respond and only turned to speak to the nanny instead, Emilia grew irritated.
"Papa's so mean. I greeted you and you won't even answer. You have to greet me back."
Cardan thought to himself that he had no idea who she took after to be this stubborn. He turned to Elvin and told him to take charge for the day. It was too dangerous having a child around.
Hearing Cardan call the man Elvin, Emilia thought to herself, so that was Elvin, captain of the family's knights and the man Cardan trusted most.
And so Emilia followed Cardan back to his study. She simply sat in a chair beside him, watching him work through his paperwork.
Before long, a maid hurried in with tea and pastries. Noticing the sparkle in Emilia's eyes, Cardan gave in and handed her a pastry, telling her to eat.
Emilia looked longingly at the pretty little cake. No. If she finished it, Cardan would probably be upset.
He told her it was just a pastry, she could have as many as she wanted, so go ahead and eat.
Sitting across from her, watching the little girl devour her food, Cardan could not help but remark, "Anyone watching would think you were starving."
Once she had finished the whole plate of pastries, Emilia cheerfully turned to Cardan and asked, "By the way, Papa, what's my name?"
Hearing the question, Cardan flinched so hard that he knocked over his teacup.
Emilia lowered her head and said that everyone just called her young lady. Even the nanny did. And even the flowers all had names.
"But I don't have one. Do I really not have a name?"
Cardan quickly answered that she did. Her name was Emilia. Her name meant shining through love.
Learning that she had a name, Emilia threw herself happily into Cardan's arms and laughed. "You named me, Papa. What a beautiful name."
Cardan sighed and said it was not him. Whoever named her must have loved her more than anyone.
"How could you not have a name? You were given a name the day you were born, but after that some things happened, and it's my fault no one ever told you."
Seeing Cardan blame himself, Emilia felt something strange stir inside her. She realized that she had somehow forgotten, at some point, that Cardan was no longer just a character who existed only within the pages of a novel. This place, right now, was real life for her and for Cardan, and it came with real pain and real sorrow too.
Emilia wrapped her arms around Cardan's leg and said, "Thank you, Papa Cardan. And I'm sorry too, for so many things."
Cardan burst out laughing at that. What an insolent child, calling him by his name so boldly.
As Emilia happily made her way back, a maid stepped in front of her, smiling coldly.
"My lady, you've been living quite well these days, haven't you? Those women who were in the garden that day have all died in the dungeon by now."
Emilia froze at the news. They died? How could that be?
The red-haired maid snapped angrily, "Doesn't the young lady feel any pity for them? You're so selfish. Whose fault do you think this was?"
With that, she yanked Emilia along furiously.
Just then, Elvin appeared and asked what was going on. Frightened, the maid quickly claimed she was only helping adjust the young lady's outfit.
Looking at the man standing before her, Emilia suddenly remembered. Elvin was a character she had read about, utterly loyal to Cardan, standing by his side through every hardship. Even when Cardan was caught up in the schemes of the royal nobility, this man had always been sharp enough to work things out from behind the scenes. His swordsmanship was so exceptional that Cardan, a man who rarely trusted anyone, placed his full confidence in Elvin. Which meant this was someone she could actually trust.
She smiled and greeted him, and Elvin looked a little surprised that Emilia still remembered him.
Emilia replied that of course she did. She had just seen him a moment ago, standing right next to Cardan. How could she forget?
Elvin bent down to her eye level and smiled. "It seems that while we weren't seeing each other, you grew up so fast."
Emilia could not recall ever having met him before. Elvin explained with a smile that back before he went off to war, he used to visit the manor now and then to check that she was growing up healthy, so he would have something to report to the Duke.
Hearing this, Emilia thought to herself, so someone close to Cardan had come to see her before too.
Looks like it was time to go on the offensive.